News and Events

Sixth formers in UKMT Senior Maths Challenge

Well done to the team of four SRWA Sixth Form students who took part in the regional heat of the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge at Lancing College last week, the most competitive mathematics competition in the country.

20 of the top schools and colleges in the region took part (including many private schools: Lancing College, Tonbridge School, Brighton College). Local state schools included the Sixth Form Colleges: Collyers, Worthing College, Millais, St Pauls and Brighton High School for Girls.

Each team consists of four students from Years 12 and 13 working on questions in pairs for two of three rounds. The questions and format of the competition make it tougher than A Level mathematics and similar to university entrance papers in the complexity of their problem solving.

We took four students in total, two from Year 13 (Abe and Charlie) who are taking A Levels in Mathematics and Further Mathematics and are currently applying to UCAS to read Mathematics at university (Warwick and Exeter respectively) and two Year 12 students, Sam and Jack, who are taking A Levels in Mathematics.

We came 19th out of 20 in a very competitive field where it appeared many of the school had practised extensively. The winning team was extraordinary (Tonbridge School) only dropping one mark in the whole competition.

SRWA Maths teacher David Keegan said: "It was great for our students to go up against the best maths students from the top private and state school in the region [who are destined for Oxbridge and Russell Group universities]. I am sure this will help our students as they apply for places at the top maths universities in the country. "

Sixth former Abe Bloxham said: "That was tougher than the university entrance test!"

Head teacher Kieran Scanlon said: "This shows that SRWA is aspiring to provide a Sixth Form course in Mathematics competing with the very best state and private schools in the region."